Ephmazing People


So given that this post is on the internet, and there are possibly creepers out there, names shan't be mentioned, but you know who you are:

I have known some of the absolutely most amazing and fantabulous people here. Many of them are close friends, many aren't, but they knock my socks off each and every day.

There's PN, who managed stunning academic success while providing extraordinarily capable student leadership to the student body. I once spent 4 hours in a room with him essentially designing a Constitution, and actually enjoyed it.

There's MR, who manages to be nigh magnetic with charm, grace, and wit, and whose interest in engaging the world through artistic endeavors far surpasses anyone else I've met.

There're BB, KB, and MD, whose endeavors and abilities in dance surprise and touch me with each performance, and whose kindness and spirit lighten every day I see them. One of them owes me cookies too, and another has given me cookies she baked herself at least 5 times.  :D

There's WH, who is good, honest, and excited about the world and esoteric (at least to me) topics.  He once stole the show with nothing but a single appendage, and has many secret abilities to boot.

There's RP, whose jazzy skills on the keyboard blew me away the first night we met and played together, and whose efforts have improved many a concert or meet and greet. I'm listening to R at this very moment. There's AJ, who can sing a song like no one else, though EK on the piano was plain old amazing as well. WS is already making waves as a freshman, and another WS is going to make waves next year doing something else.

Follow across the jump for many, many more.

The Decade in Photos

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/12/the_decade_in_news_photographs.html

50 Photos in 10 years. All excellent, poignant, and heart-breaking.

Photos of Child Labor in Bangladesh

These images are happening right now:

13-year-old Liyakot Ali works in a silver cooking pot factory in Old Dhaka. The children work 10 hour days in hazardous conditions, for a weekly wage of 200 taka (3 USD). Dhaka.

Faculty House


Reader Joke from Daily Dish

This is pretty good:
Young Chuck moved to Texas and bought a donkey from a farmer for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day. The next day the farmer drove up and said, 'Sorry Chuck, but I have some bad news, the donkey died.'

Chuck replied, 'Well, then just give me my money back.'

The farmer said, 'Can't do that. I went and spent it already.'

Chuck said, 'OK, then, just bring me the dead donkey.'

The farmer asked, 'What ya gonna do with a dead donkey?'

Chuck said, 'I'm going to raffle him off.'

The farmer said 'You can't raffle off a dead donkey!'

Chuck said, 'Sure I can. Watch me. I just won't tell anybody he's dead.'

A month later, the farmer met up with Chuck and asked, 'What happened with that dead donkey?'

Chuck said, 'I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars apiece and made a profit of $898.00.'

The farmer said, 'Didn't anyone complain?'

Chuck said, 'Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back.'

Chuck now works for JP Morgan.

$346.9 Million Investment Hit


From the Boston Business Journal:
By Craig M. Douglas
Williams College, a liberal arts school located in Western Massachusetts, saw is balance sheet shrink by 20 percent in the most recent fiscal year on some $427 million in nonoperating losses.

Most of those losses stemmed from a $346.9 million hit to the college’s investment portfolio, according to financial filings. [...]

The college’s total assets were valued at $1.64 billion, down 20 percent from the $2.06 billion on its books a year earlier [...]

Richardson writes about Williams Track

From the Salem News:
Joel Richardson has written another book, this time focusing on the Williams College track program. The name of the book is easy to remember: "Williams Track", and is available on Amazon.com.... [I don't see it there yet -Will]

"I wanted to tell how the athletes could integrate the values and what they learned in class to putting that into practice in their performance (in track)," said Richardson, who ran for the Ephs from 1978-80, competing in the 440, 600, and 880 meters. His name is on the school's all-time indoor list at 500 meters (600 yards).

Finals


Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays have ceased to exist. There are now but three times of importance:


Reading Period: AKA, the time that you know you should be studying for finals but spent it saying goodbyes, hanging out, and wasting time on the computer, unless you're taking a take-home early.


Finals: Study, write, take exams, eat, sleep when possible.

Done: Freeeeeeedom and immediate escape.

Most common question on campus: "Are you done?"

Harvard's Epic Financial Fail

From Bloomberg, via an Ephblog comment:
The swaps, which assumed that interest rates would rise, proved so toxic that the 373-year-old institution agreed to pay banks a total of almost $1 billion to terminate them. Most of the wrong-way bets were made in 2004, when Lawrence Summers, now President Barack Obama’s economic adviser, led the university. Cranes were recently removed from the construction site of a $1 billion science center that was to be the expansion’s centerpiece, a reminder of Summers’s ambition. The school said last week they will suspend work on the building early next year
Ouch. "Smartest guys in the room," indeed.

Crazy Chemistry Reaction

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=680106771263243162&hl=en#

I've never seen such a thing, though I think Thermite is "cooler."

Yes, that's exactly what this was.....

David Paterson crashes a rival's party:
Gov. Paterson made an attention-grabbing appearance last night at a birthday-bash fund-raiser for his political rival, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo -- the likely 2010 Democratic nominee for governor over the poll-challenged incumbent.

"Andrew looked shocked," said one guest. "The governor bum-rushed him. They greeted each other. It was stiff and cordial. It was like seeing your old girlfriend at the prom."

2 Points to Burger King